Accept the fact that some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue.
George Rebane
As these pages attest, I am not a blinded supporter of all things Trump. I especially take exceptions to his tweet-in-the-mouth MO with which he often snatches another debilitating defeat from the jaws of victory. But I did vote for him for two reasons – 1) he promised to try things different from the SOS that has become the Washington quagmire (cf Einstein’s dictum), and 2) given the horrible alternative, he was the clear better choice.
Since his ‘ascension’ into office, President Trump has accomplished many salutary objectives to America’s benefit, and most certainly to the benefit of our citizens. Now all of his actions have not been uniformly successful. The biggest question mark I have relates to his particular initiatives on trade and tariffs. As we have gone back and forth on this, I don’t understand how the endgame will be to our benefit from such a broad brush application of tariff increases in order to make the trade-game ‘level and fair’ (itself a dubious objective).
But my training in science teaches me to look through the surrounding chaff and judge the policy on its delivered effects, and in my ignorance not to join some hysterical consensual cohort. I have no problem in pre-judging policies the effects of which (i.e. transfer function) I do understand and therefore can reasonably predict. The years of RR attest to my doing so, and readers are always invited to judge and comment on my performance.
So now we come to the cacophony of the collectivists that echoes daily across the land – President Trump stole his election through a treasonous conspiracy with the Russians. And to pile on, he confirms this through his daily genuflections in front of what the Left points out is nothing less than the Russian masterpiece titled The Adoration of The Putin. The Democratic base, especially the lamestream media and their alt-Left or now established socialist wing, laps up this narrative lock, stock, and barrel.
Michael Anton, Hillsdale College lecturer and former Trump national security adviser, takes a different view on Trump’s reaction to the treason charges and the overall campaign to unseat him that is much in line with Rebane Doctrine. In the 20jul18 WSJ piece ‘Why Trump’s Detractor’s Cry Treason’, Mr Anton argues that our own federal government materially meddled much more against Trump in the 2016 election than ever could or did the Russian government, even with Putin’s goading.
There is more public evidence of American meddling—politicized leaks, gaming a criminal investigation, surveillance of campaign associates, and strings of biased messages by officials—than of Russian. There may be piles of secret evidence of the latter. If so, why not make more of it public? Especially since, as we have been told, acknowledging Russian interference is the patriotic imperative of our time. …
Few of the president’s opponents actually say that Russia swung him the election. But that’s clearly what they insinuate and want people to believe. Mr. Trump understands this and is frustrated by it. Can you blame him?


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